Flyfishing is an outdoor sport enjoyed by many people. When flyfishing, a fisherman uses a fly tied on the end of a line attached to a rod and reel. A fisherman wades into shallow water or stands very near a bank of a body of water and he repeatedly casts his fly upon the water. A fish swimming in the water is tricked into thinking that the fly landing on the water is a real fly or bug.
It is common for a fisherman to fish in a briskly moving stream or river and quite often a fisherman will wade into water to get closer to an area where he is more likely to catch fish. When wading into the water, a fisherman may find it difficult to maintain his balance on rocky bottoms or in fast currents and may choose to use a wading staff for a stabilizing support. Wading staffs are commercially available and appear in two basic varieties: (1) an unextensible single piece of solid material such as metal or wood; and (2) extensible by either telescoping or collapsing the staff. The key advantage of an extensible staff over an unextensible one is ease of portability provided by reducing the size of the staff.
Trees or shrubs are often found in or near the water where fishermen fish. Often, the flies, lines, hooks, lures, etc. of the fisherman may become snagged in overhanging branches when the fisherman casts. If the fly is snagged in a branch that is beyond the fisherman's reach, he may lose the fly by inadvertently breaking the fishing line or by cutting the fishing line in frustration. This can cause a loss of time and money because flies can cost $1 to $3 or more, and it may take several minutes to tie or replace a fly onto the line. A need exists for a tool to help retrieve snagged flies, lines, hooks, lures, etc. that are out of the fisherman's reach.
The invention described in this document provides the dual function of a wading staff, which may be used as a stabilizing support for a fisherman wading in water, and a tool to retrieve snagged flies, lures, hooks or other fishing devices.